Samsung UN55KU6600 vs UN55KU6500 Review : What are their differences?

Samsung UN55KU6600 and UN55KU6500 are parts of Samsung’s 2016 4K LED TV Lineup series 6. At a glance, the excepting of their stand, they look similar. Both of them also equally come with curved panel. Nevertheless, although the specs and features offered by them are similar, precisely picture performance offered by UN55KU6600 is more similar to UN55KU63000 than UN55KU6500. One of the advantage of both as entry level TV, they can deliver deep black level and strong contrast that makes the picture that displayed on their screen looks good. But in other hand, both of them have poor side viewing angle that makes the picture look degraded if viewers watch from side viewing angle. Additionally, come with HDR technology but their HDR performance is limited due their color gamut and peak brightness don’t meet minimum requirements needed for displaying HDR 10 contents fully. The other interesting thing that offered by UN55KU6500 and UN65KU6600 is about smart TV where with Tizen OS as their smart TV platform, they offer attractive and responsive smart TV platform with a lot of most popular and useful apps available. With performance that is almost similar, UN55KU6600 is also sold with similar price than UN55KU6500. Never the less, their price is not fixed and could still change at any time.

The difference between Samsung UN55KU6600 and UN55KU6500

As we have mentioned above, at a glance, Samsung UN55KU6500 and UN55KU6600 looks similar, A bt difference is about their stand. The stand of UN55KU6500 looks same as the KU6300. It has small foot prints and is attached to the center of the TV. Meanwhile, the stand of UN55KU6500 is similar to stand of JU8500 series in last year. It also attaches to the center of the panel but the footprint is slightly wider than UN55KU6500. But of course, it is not something the major difference between them.

Performance of Samsung UN55KU6500 vs UN55KU6600

Picture Quality

Despite as we see on the comparison table above, Samsung UN55KU6500 and UN55KU6600 are supported by similar technologies and features, but in term of picture quality, UN55KU6600 offers slight better picture quality than UN55KU6500.This due all aspect of display specs like black level, contrast, peak brightness, and color gamut of UN55KU6600 is slight superior to UN55KU6600. As the note, UN55KU6600 can reach about 0.016 nits of black level with native contrast ratio around 6100:1 while UN55KU6500 reach about 0.02 nits of black level with contrast ratio around 5000:1. As well as about peak brightness that reached by them, peak brightness reached by UN55KU6600 is around 450 nits while peak brightness reached by UN55KU6500 is around 400 nits. Moving on color coverage, UN55KU6600 can cover about 85% of DCI P3 color space while color gamut delivered by UN55KU6500 is around 82% of DCI P3 color space. This means, with the superiority on some important aspects of picture quality, of course this makes the picture displayed on the screen of UN55KU6600 looks better than UN55KU6500.

Nevertheless, separated from their differences in some display specs, picture quality produced by them is above average. Black level and contrast produced by them is very deep and strong that makes details images of dark scene can be revealed well. Even their black level and contrast are quite deep and strong for displaying HDR 10 contents. This means when playing HDR contents, there will no issue when they are displaying dark scenes. Additionally, deep black level and strong contrast delivered by them also makes their performance in a dark room is very good. Unlike most of IPS TV where blacks will look tend to grey, on their screen, blacks of images will look really black.

In other hand, peak brightness reached by them is also quite bright that makes the picture displayed looks well when used in room with decent lights. But unfortunately, this is only limited when they are displaying SDR contents. This means when displaying SDR contents, the picture produced by them is quite bright. Meanwhile, when displaying HDR contents, their peak brightness is not quite bright. As the note, for displaying HDR 10 contents fully, peak brightness that is required at least 1000 nits. 400 nits reached by UN55KU6500 or 450 nits reached by UN55U6600 certainly is still far below 1000 nits what required for displaying HDR 10 contents fully.

Moving on color performance, color of the picture that displayed on their screen also looks very accurate and saturated when they are displaying SDR contents. But unfortunately, color gamut delivered by them is still not quite wide for displaying HDR contents. As we know, Color coverage which needed by HDR 10 is at least 90% of DCI P3 color space while SDR contents only need REC. color space. That’s why color looks accurate when they are displaying SDR contents, but when displaying HDR, there will be an issue on color reproduction. Still about color performance, both of them also already supports 10 bit panel. This means when they are inputted by HDR contents that has 10 bit depth of color, color gradient of the picture produced by them will look very smooth. In the darker shades, there may still be a bit of issue, but for most of people with untrained eyes, this should not be a problem.

A great performance that offered by both of Samsung UN55KU6600 and UN55KU6500 as entry level TVs is about UHD Up-scaling engine. Separated from picture quality that produced, their performance is similar to top class model like KS9500 or KS9000. This allows you to enjoy lower resolution contents in near 4K resolution sharply and clearly. Even low resolution contents like DVD Movies with 480p resolution still looks sharply and clearly in 4K quality with small details preserved well. And of course, the higher resolution of video sources like 720p or 1080p, the final image in 4K resolution which produced will looks sharper and clearer. And considering most of the contents that available in the market still have lower resolution than 4K, of course this feature is still very important.

But unfortunately, good picture quality displayed on the screen of Samsung UN55KU6500 or UN55KU6600 can be enjoyed when you watch TV from center and front. Although they come with curved panel claimed can improve side viewing angle, but in reality, their side viewing angle performance is still poor. This means, the picture will start to deteriorate at 20 degrees off screen and front and the wider angles you are watching, the quality of the picture will look worse. But even so, as long as you watch TV from center and in front of the screen, the picture that displayed on their screen will look amazing for their class.

Motion Handling and 24p Playback

Both of Samsung UN55KU6500 and UN55KU6600 are not excellent TV when handling motion blur. Some motion blur are still noticeable following fast moving object when they are used for watching fast moving images like sports program or fast movies. Of course this will be a bit annoying your convenience when enjoying your favorite sport programs or other videos with a lot of fast scenes. Nevertheless, for most of people with untrained eyes, this should not be a big issue. Additionally, both of Samsung UN55KU6600 and UN55KU6500 are also not a good TV when playing 24p movies. This means, when they are playing 24p movies, judder cannot be removed completely, even for native 24p contents like movies from Blu-Ray. Fortunately, most people don’t notice about judder, so this should not also be a big issue for them.

Connectivity

As their major connectivity, both of Samsung UN55KU6500 and UN55KU6600 are equipped with 3 HDMI Ports and 2 USB Ports. Their HDMI ports also already support HDCP 2.2, CEC, Audio Return Channel, and other format that required for HDMI Connection at this time. Additionally, once “Game Mode” is activated, the input lag is low at any sources. This means it is good for Video games even for games which require fast reflex. But unfortunately, their motion handling is not so good, so when you use them for fast games, although it is felt responsively without laggy, the picture of games will looks slightly blur especially for fast moving objects. In addition to HDMI ports and USB ports, there are also AV In (Composite In), Component In, Ethernet, Digital Audio Out (optical), RF In (Antenna In) and others as their inputs/outputs.

Smart TV

Tizen OS Home Screen

Both of Samsung UN55KU6600 and UN55KU6500 feature same Smart TV platform and similar to what features by higher series, that is Tizen OS that powered by a quad core processor. With the support of high Speed Processor and decent memory, this makes its performance is fast and very responsive. Loading time of an app once it is launched is fast, as well as selecting between apps, it also felt very responsive. Additionally, its layout and user interface is designed simple and user friendly so easy and more comfortable to use. Talking about apps provided, they are very complete and varied. There are most popular apps like YouTube, Netflix, Amazon Videos, and more for streaming videos, fast Web browser, Screen Mirroring app, Apps and Contents Store, and many more.

As the controller, both of Samsung UN55KU6500 and UN55KU6600 are equipped with smart remote called “Smart Controller. It is designed with buttons and easy to use, even there is no “number” buttons. This remote is equipped with built in microphone for Voice navigation functionality. Additionally, it is also embedded with a lot of IR commands that makes it can be used as universal remote to control other devices connected on the TV via HDMI ports. But unfortunately, unlike last year model, there is no pointer functionality. This course will makes you a bit awkward when inputting texts or surfing on the internet.

Conclusion

As we have discussed a lot above, in addition to their stands that becomes their difference in appearance and design, picture quality also becomes their difference where UN55KU6600 offers slight better picture quality. Its black level, contrast, color coverage, and peak brightness are slight superior to what offered by UN55KU6500. In addition to their picture quality, both of them offer similar identical performance on some features. But even so, in the market, with a bit advantages that offered, UN55KU6600 is sold about with a similar price than UN55KU6500. But of course, their price is not fixed and could still change at any time.

So, which is a better choice between them? Considering the performance and as long as they are sold with identical price, I think Samsung UN55KU6600 is a better choice than UN55KU6500. In addition to its offers slight better picture quality, it is also sold with similar price than UN55KU6500. But at any time, the price sometimes is changed so UN55KU6600 is sold about tens dollars more expensive than UN55KU6500. I other hand, what offered by Samsung UN55KU6500 is also not far behind UN55KU6600, so I think it is also not a bad choice. No the decision comes back to you according to your need and preferences. But even so, before you decide to choose one of them, there are a lot of opinions from each of their real customers who have bought one of them where you can make as your further consideration.

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